was solved--but,
alas! too late. The green ray was produced by a searchlight, and every
man on the destroyer would be blind. I looked back, and as I did so I
remembered, with an uncanny distinctness, old General McLeod's words,
"The rock came to me." The warship seemed suddenly to grow double its
size, and then double that, and so on, growing bigger and bigger until
it appeared to fill the entire loch, and spread out the whole length
of the horizon. I could even see a gold signet-ring on the finger of a
young officer on the bridge. I looked round at the details of the
boat; it stood out in amazing clearness. If one man on that ship,
hundreds of yards away, had opened his mouth I could have counted his
teeth. Suddenly I gasped with astonishment as I awoke to the fact that
every man on board the destroyer was wearing motor-goggles! I had no
time to speculate about this new surprise, for then the _Fiona_, left
to her own devices, suddenly crashed ashore. The ship shook and
shivered, and Fuller was thrown on his face beside the searchlight,
and as I looked again the destroyer had resumed its normal
proportions.

Then the crew of the _Fiona_ rushed about the deck in mad terror,
until, evidently at the wise suggestion of one of their number, they
decided to wait calmly and give themselves up. Hilderman, closely
followed by Fuller, sprang ashore, and made for the mountains. Half a
dozen shots rang out from the destroyer, and a rifle bullet checked
Fuller's progress before he had gone more than a few yards.

Hilderman, however, managed to reach the shelter of a ridge of rock,
and I watched him as he scuttled up the mountain side, and made
straight for a long grey rock which protruded from the foot of a steep
crag. And as I looked, and saw him go to the rock and open a door in
it, I realised that it was really a great, grey, lean-to shed,
cunningly concealed. Hilderman had scarcely opened the door when a
huge, dark shadow seemed to fall out of the shed and envelop him. It
was Sholto. Blind, and half-mad with fury, he sprang at Hilderman's
throat with the unerring aim of his breed. The wretched man staggered
and fell, and Sholto----.

I turned away from the sickening sight, and looked over the side, and
saw Myra standing up, waving to me, as they drew alongside the wrecked
_Fiona_.

And then I'm afraid I must have fainted.

* * * * *

I lay on the sofa in Myra's den, and Myra--God bless her!